1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal. In particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for storing and reading out data in a mobile terminal, wherein the apparatus and method allow the exchange of data between a mobile terminal and a personal computer (PC), using a universal serial bus (USB) interface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Universal serial buses (USB's) have made it possible to more rapidly and conveniently connect a PC and a peripheral device and to interconnect a larger number of devices. Numerous devices have USB interfaces. For example, almost all devices, such as printers, scanners, external hard discs, MP3 players and digital cameras, support a USB interface.
A mobile phone or a mobile terminal may exchange data with a PC by interconnecting the mobile phone and the PC with a cable using a 24-pin connector, i.e., a USB interface. However, such a PC must be equipped with an application program for exchanging data with a mobile terminal. Therefore, data exchange is executed between the mobile telephone and the PC through the application program under the condition that the mobile terminal and the PC are synchronized.
Accordingly, a conventional mobile phone can exchange data with a PC by being PC-linked with the PC as described above.
For example, a conventional mobile phone and a USB interface of a PC installed with an application program are interconnected by a cable. Thereafter, if the application program installed in the PC is executed, the conventional mobile phone and the PC become synchronized with each other. Then, the monitor of the PC displays data such as names, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and so on that are stored in the phone book of the mobile phone, as well as bell melodies, image files (e.g., background screens, photographs, etc.), and electronic diary data such as schedules that are stored in the mobile phone.
Thereafter, a user may enter and/or manipulate the above-mentioned data capable of being stored in the mobile phone through the PC for transmission to the mobile phone using a USB protocol and a cable. Thereby, the data may be stored without requiring the input of telephone numbers, schedules or the like one by one using the limited input means of a conventional mobile phone keypad. In addition, when using the stored data, a corresponding data is read out and displayed in a display window.
However, such a conventional mobile phone has a problem in that because the received data are stored only in one position, i.e., in a memory having a small storage capacity in the mobile phone, only the data desired by the user in the mobile phone is restrictively stored and read out. In addition, there is no other way to store and read out selected data such as a bell melody, image file, and phone book only. Moreover, because the data such as bell melodies, image files or a phone book are restrictively stored, it is presently not possible to execute mutual data exchange using an external PC, whereby a memory of a mobile terminal, which is easy to carry, can be used as a portable disc drive. A need therefore exists for a mobile terminal that can effectively store and exchange data with an external PC and operate as a portable disc drive.